Apple on Wednesday announced that the first day of iPhone 4 preorders topped 600,000 on the first day of availability, representing the largest single day of preorders ever.

Apple said in a press release that the total was "far higher than we anticipated, resulting in many order and approval system malfunctions. Many customers were turned away or abandoned the process in frustration."

The company continued, "We apologize to everyone who encountered difficulties, and hope that they will try again or visit an Apple store or carrier store once the iPhone 4 is in stock."

iPhone 4 preorders through Apple that could not be placed on Tuesday will have to wait, as Apple has said new orders will ship by July 2, more than a week after the June. 24 launch date.

Those who didn't get their order in on Tuesday in the U.S. may have to wait even longer, as AT&T also announced Wednesday that it has suspended preorders following unprecedented demand for Apple's latest handset. The exclusive carrier of the iPhone in the U.S. said that demand was ten times greater than that for the iPhone 3GS in 2009.

Both Apple and AT&T experienced problems as the companies began accepting preorders on Tuesday. AT&T's systems were unable to verify eligibility for some existing customers, while Apple was forced to turn down callers to its 800 number.

The iPhone 4 is set to launch next Thursday, June 24. In addition to the AT&T network in the U.S., the phone will debut with multiple carrier partners in France, Germany, the U.K. and Japan. Apple has announced that the iPhone 4 international launch will ramp up to 87 total countries by September, its fastest-ever global deployment of a new handset.

The 600,000 preorders taken Tuesday suggest that Apple is on pace to blow out its previous sales records with the iPhone 3GS. Last year, Apple sold over a million of the device in its first three days.

Is anyone surprised by this announcement? I wonder how high the number would have been without system malfunctions? I think it's been said before... Apple is doomed.

Was able to pre-order two... I'll be waiting for FedEx on the 24th. Not surprisingly, I had success with one order while the West coast was at lunch, and pushed the other through while they were in traffic on the way home.

I'm not sure that I understand why folks who absolutely want an iPhone on the 24th didn't simply order one for delivery - where they will certainly be delivered by FedEx next Thursday.

A lot of us tried...many, many times, but the handoff to ATT for eligibility verification timed out. Some people reported trying for hours. I, myself, tried off and on well over two dozen times while working on other projects.

Is anyone surprised by this announcement? I wonder how high the number would have been without system malfunctions?

I'd say both Apple and AT&T were surprised. Probably the numbers could have been higher if Apple had more stock of the phones to sell. The ordering system glitches probably throttled the preorders back something closer to supply.

A lot of us tried...many, many times, but the handoff to ATT for eligibility verification timed out. Some people reported trying for hours. I, myself, tried off and on well over two dozen times while working on other projects.

I sure understand. It took six hours to get two separate orders through for my wife and I.

Interestingly, the 'Bumpers' aren't scheduled to ship until the 24th with delivery the 25th-29th.

I guess that number wouldn't include in-store reservations that many of us were forced into because of the malfunctions. (10 transactions per second hardly seems like enough to take the system down, even if you assume it was reallly 200 transactions per second with the failure rate.)

I agree, if they only listed to the advice from all the trolls on this forum they could be doing well, oh well.

On that note, it's been cracking me up to read all of the iPhone hater's comments about how much better they think the EVO is. Even yesterday, when I called Verizon to verify her information to port her number for iPhone, they were singing the praises of the Incredible. Regardless of what the haters say, it's awfully hard to deny the success from yesterday. In three months, the EVO will be replaced with another iPhone want-a-be. No other phone integrates iTunes, beautiful design, and common-sense GUI like Apple.

Call me an Apple Fanboy - that's fine. Just make sure you call out sales while comparing meaningless phone features.

I guess that number wouldn't include in-store reservations that many of us were forced into because of the malfunctions. (10 transactions per second hardly seems like enough to take the system down, even if you assume it was reallly 200 transactions per second with the failure rate.)

Obviously 200 transactions per second is child's play for a single database. Thus, I suspect the problem stems from some kind of communications between databases that multiplies the queries. It's quite possible that each one of those checks resulted in a dozen or more SELECT (and/or even INSERT if they're tracking inquiries) statements that may not have been optimized due to not anticipating demand. Then a middleware server has to combine the results and spit out a rendered web page-- probably much more often with the reloads and such.

In short, this is probably a system-of-systems failure and not a single overloaded database, IMHO.

I'm kinda surprised people seem to be taking the removal of the 'unlimited' (not really) data plan and replacing it with a 2G plan. Maybe it's me but even if I were to 'almost always' fly in under the 2GB cap ... I'd have that one month that would sneak up on me and I'd be zonked with an insane overage fee.

'Unlimited' while clearly an inaccurate term, has a certain level of comfort and taking it away (I would have though) would have given many iPhone customers pause.

I guess that number wouldn't include in-store reservations that many of us were forced into because of the malfunctions. (10 transactions per second hardly seems like enough to take the system down, even if you assume it was reallly 200 transactions per second with the failure rate.)

1) I appreciate estyle taking the time to crunch the numbers, but I think they are off. I think Apple sold 600k (including all authorized retailers) worldwide in that timeframe.

2) Not all transactions and DB servers are the same. It's not exactly a Google search these servers are doing. It's really quite complex and redundant to ensure there are no hiccups. Without getting into it here is a quick blurp from Wikipedia that I think is relevant:

Quote:

In computer science, transaction processing is information processing that is divided into individual, indivisible operations, called transactions. Each transaction must succeed or fail as a complete unit; it cannot remain in an intermediate state.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"

i'll be waiting until the white model is available, hopefully the huge initial wave will have passed and AT&T's security glitches will be sorted through...good luck to all you that will soon be subject to identity theft...

i'll be waiting until the white model is available, hopefully the huge initial wave will have passed and AT&T's security glitches will be sorted through...good luck to all you that will soon be subject to identity theft...

let's start a rumor that the white iphone will have the option of 64gbs and trying to fit that extra memory is why it is not initially available.

anyone know how At&t and Apple are dealing with rolling over your current iPhone rate plan. The Apple website claims you can roll-over your current wireless AND data plan if you have the 3G or 3Gs. Anyone know if this was part of the ording process?

I have the basic $49/mo 450 voice and $30/mo data 3G plan and don't want to loose that. Looking at At&t's current voice plan of $69 a month for the base 450 plan now is highway robbery!!! I'm totally not wanting to loose this!

also, does anyone know how trading in your old phone works? I'd like to recycle it like i did my old iPod Mini. Apple gave me a 10% discount on my new purchase for doing so. Anyone know if they will do this for the iPhone?

Lost in all this iPhone 4 hype is the fact that Apple is now selling unlocked iPhones in Canada.

That's fantastic. And although for now it is limited to 3GS, the description of unlocked phones just below also apply for iPhones 4. So since all three major cell phone provider now have iPhones, it seems Apple will let unlocked devices be sold at higher prices without contracts, giving us users a bit of power of the absurd 3-year contracts we now need... Not a bad news!

anyone know how At&t and Apple are dealing with rolling over your current iPhone rate plan. The Apple website claims you can roll-over your current wireless AND data plan if you have the 3G or 3Gs. Anyone know if this was part of the ording process?

I have the basic $49/mo 450 voice and $30/mo data 3G plan and don't want to loose that. Looking at At&t's current voice plan of $69 a month for the base 450 plan now is highway robbery!!! I'm totally not wanting to loose this!

also, does anyone know how trading in your old phone works? I'd like to recycle it like i did my old iPod Mini. Apple gave me a 10% discount on my new purchase for doing so. Anyone know if they will do this for the iPhone?

It shows you your current plan. You can then change it to one of the new plans, if you'd like, but you can stick with the Unlimited data.

Dick Applebaum on whether the iPad is a personal computer: "BTW, I am posting this from my iPad pc while sitting on the throne... personal enough for you?"